New laptops bringing 'endless possibilities,' Byron teachers say

When community members in the Byron Center Public Schools district agreed to help fund a $5 million technology initiative that allocated a brand new, $1,200 MacBook Air laptop to each student in grades 7-12, district administrators were optimistic about how the technology would revolutionize education in their schools.

Superintendent Dan Takens called the measure “a leap of faith” – one that after a little less than two months of implementation in classrooms has already changed the way these schools are tackling education. Where current events assignments were once nothing more than a pen and paper summary, teachers are now broadening the ways students can engage in the topic.

“Now they can take the computer, they can record it, they can sing, they can do a parody,” Takens said. “Giving them those computers that they have all day long and training our teachers so that their assignments are set up through the technology, through blogs – it’s become a regular part of our culture.”

Byron Center High School Principal Scott Joseph, who Takens said was a major advocate of moving forward with the technology, spoke briefly on the impact it has had on his high school students Monday night at the Board of Education meeting. The laptops, he said, put the power of learning back in the hands of the students. “They become the discoverers, the creators,” Joseph said.

And in an age where many question the college- and workforce-readiness of high school students, Joseph said the initiative is a way to combat that concern, and equip students with the kind of skills needed in an increasingly technological job market.

“We can help to create a generation of highly involved communicators who can connect and collaborate and work together and problem solve,” he said.

Byron Center West Middle School teacher Scott Aldrich said, from a teacher’s perspective, the laptops have allowed him to create more assignments that are geared toward individual interpretation.

“Because they come with so many different interests, so many different abilities, so many different talents and one teacher can only do so many things with 30 different kids, the technology allows us to really take advantage and tailor the education for every kid,” Aldrich said.

BCPS modeled their technology initiative after one implemented a few years ago by Holland Christian Schools, Takens said, and it took district representatives about a year and a half of “salesmanship” before winning over public support. Takens said it’s important for both parents and educators not only to reconcile with the inevitability of technology becoming integrated with the learning process, but also to recognize that to engage students, you have to think the way students do.

“Those days of your teacher lecturing and you absorbing information – that model doesn’t work anymore,” he said. “We were thinking, what engages our kids? Whether we like it or not, it is technology. It is doing some tactile, something creative.”

Now that the technology is integrating smoothly into campus culture, Takens is hopeful that higher levels of student engagement will improve things like attendance, tardiness, and the number of assignments students regularly turn in.

John Krajewski, principal of West Middle School, spoke alongside Joseph at the Board of Education meeting, and called progress so far the “tip of the iceberg.” “That ability to collaborate and communicate and individualize learning for our students to be able to express their creativity – endless possibilities,” he said.